Transportation

In-brief: FedEx said its TNT subsidiary was still relying on manual processes more than a week after it was ravaged by the Petya wiper malware. The attack will materially impact the company’s financial performance in 2018, FedEx said in a filing with the SEC.

In-brief: The U.S. should invest in equipment and talent to preserve legacy, analog infrastructure such as copper wire telecommunications networks and pneumatic pumps as a hedge against massively disruptive cyber attacks and other interruptions, two researchers with The MITRE Corporation argue in a recent opinion piece.

In-brief: Research from the firm IOActive has discovered exploitable holes in in-flight entertainment software from the firm Panasonic Avionics that may make planes vulnerable to hacking and manipulation. Editor’s note: updated with comments from interview with Ruben Santamarta of IOActive. PFR 12/21/2016

San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) was hit with a ransomware attack over the weekend, disrupting a number of agency computer systems including email, the MTA said in a statement on Sunday. And security experts say that the ransomware used has a reputation for virulence. Computer terminals observed at MTA (or “Muni”) stations displayed a message that read, in part, “You Hacked. All Data Encrypted” over the weekend, paralyzing toll collection operations and forcing the MTA to open its turnstiles and let the public ride for free. According to a report by The San Francisco Examiner claims that the ransomware thieves have infected more than 2,000 of the agency’s 8,000 computers, affecting not only fare collection, but also systems that assign routes to bus drivers. The thieves are demanding $73,000 in ransom, paid in bitcoin. In a statement on Sunday, San Francisco MTA said that the attack “disrupted some of our […]

The web site EurActiv.com is reporting that the European Commission (EC) is getting ready to propose new legislation to protect machines from cybersecurity breaches. Among the steps they’re considering: labels for Internet-connected devices that tell consumers they are “approved and secure.” Products across industries from energy and consumer goods to automotive and healthcare could eventually be required to use the labels on their products, just as electrical devices currently contain labels that inform consumers how much power they use, EU officials said. Digital policy chiefs Günther Oettinger and Andrus Ansip presented a plan three weeks ago to speed up internet connections to meet the needs of big industries like car manufacturing and agriculture as they gradually use more internet functions. But lawmakers recognize that the transition to more and faster internet connections has caused many companies to worry that new products and industrial tools that rely on the internet will be more vulnerable […]